Alternate versions for
Blade Runner (1982)

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• All U.S video tape releases before January 1993 are the unrated version and contain the extra violence in the Euro-release that's not seen in the 117 minute American theatrical release.
  
  
• A 113 minutes 70mm. working cut shown at the some sneak previews in the U.S. and London, England in 1982 has also received a limited release at the Fairfax Theater in 1990 and UCLA's Los Angeles Perspectives multimedia festival in 1991. A 35mm reduction of this version was later shown at the Nuart and Castro Theaters in 1991. These are the changes/differences from the original version:
  • Webster's 2012 definition of a replicant used in lieu of opening crawl
  • voiceovers deleted except at Batty's death
  • Bryant says TWO replicants were fried running through an electric field
  • conversation between snake-maker and Deckard is different and matches their lips
  • includes shot of nearly nude dancers in hockey masks outside Taffey's bar
  • Batty says, "I want more life, father."
  • Pris lifts Deckard up by his nostrils when she beats him up
  • different voiceover used after Batty's death
  • no happy ending (ends with the elevator doors closing)
  • When Bryant is giving Deckard the briefing on the escaped replicants (while their head images rotate and stats flash on the video screen), he includes similar background info for Leon when his profile appears on the screen.
  
  
  
• CBS edited 3 minutes from this film for its 1986 network television premiere.
  
  
• In 2007, Ridley Scott released "Blade Runner: The Final Cut", digitally remastered with improved visual and sound effects, which also made some revisions to the 1992 director's cut that were missing from that edition. The more noticeable ones include:
  • In the opening shot, the flames shooting up have been re-animated to look more synchronized with the associated light play on the smokestacks.
  • In the shots of the staring eye, you could briefly see the pupil react to the setting of 2019 L.A.
  • A couple of shots were trimmed (such as Deckard's intro reading the newspaper).
  • Additional smoke was added behind the cook when Gaff and a police officer was talking to Deckard while he is eating at the White Dragon.
  • All spinner wires have been removed and matte lines erased.
  • Captain Bryant's line "I've got four skin jobs walking the streets..." has been improved so it's not obviously an inserted recording. He also now says that "2" replicants were fried in the electrical field.
  • A new voice over from Captain Bryant was inserted describing Leon's job.
  • New Cityspeak and other chatter comes over on the police scanner in Gaff's spinner rides both to the police station and the Tyrell building.
  • The original shot of Batty in the VidPhone booth that had been recycled from the later confrontation with Tyrell has been digitally altered so that it truly does look like Batty was in the booth.
  • The hotel manager mutters "Kowalski" as he opens the door to Leon's room for Deckard and Gaff.
  • The new Unicorn footage is longer and shows Deckard to be awake during the sequence.
  • New footage of the LA streets before Animoid Row and Taffey Lewis's club, including the hockey-masked geisha dancers.
  • The serial number on the snake scale now matches the Animoid Row lady's dialog.
  • The lip flap between Deckard and Abdul Ben Hassan has been digitally corrected (using Harrison Ford's son, Ben, as a stand-in for his mouth movements).
  • In Zhora's death scene, you can tell it is her the entire time. While previously it was obvious that her stunt double Lee Pulford was in the shot, Joanna Cassidy's head was digitally superimposed over Pulford's.
  • Deckard's scar after "retiring" Zhora was digitally removed (It wasn't supposed to be there until after the fight with Leon).
  • The "extra violence" footage from the International Version was reinserted (namely, 1) When Roy attacks Tyrell, 2) When Pris attacks Deckard 3) When Deckard shoots Pris, and 4) When Roy pushes a nail through his hand).
  • During Batty's confrontation with Tyrell, he says, "I want more life, father", in addition to saying "I'm sorry, Sebastian. Come...come..." when Sebastian is trying to escape after Batty murders Tyrell.
  • When Batty releases the dove, it now flies up into a background that matches 2019 L.A.
  
  
  
• The European theatrical release (also available on Criterion Laserdisc) is 117 minutes long and more explicit/violent than the original American version, with a few additions/differences from the US release.
  • Batty kills Tyrell by pushing his thumbs in his eyes, which bleed copiously.
  • Pris lifts Deckard up by his nostrils when she beats him up.
  • Deckard shoots Pris a third time; there are also more shots of Pris kicking and screaming when she is shot by Deckard.
  • Roy is shown while actually pushing the nail through his hand
  • Deckard and Rachael are seen riding into the sunset
  
  
  
• There are reports that when "Blade Runner" premiered on American cable TV, there was an additional line of dialog when Bryant gives Deckard the description, names, and addresses of Tyrell and Sebastian over the radio. In the cable TV version, Bryant adds "...and check 'em out" after he says "I want you to go down there."
  
  
• The infamous workprint briefly resurfaced, by accident, for a one-week engagement (1/15 - 1/21) at the Seattle, WA Landmark Egyptian Theater in 1999. However, this print was the one-of-a-kind 70mm blow-up, directly from Warner Bros.' vault! There are some additional differences (that have not been reported) between this version and the other "regular" versions:
  • Sound was mixed in 6-track Dolby Stereo, and contained numerous differences in sound effects, music, and dialogue as compared to the standard 35mm 5-track mixes.
  • Opening shots did not include close-up and subsequent pull-aways from Holden's eye as he looks out the window, it simply cut closer and closer to the Tyrell Corp. building until the interior could be seen. All the while, air-traffic control headings can be heard being issued during the sequence (it was originally edited to suggest a view from a spinner as it flies toward the Tyrell Corp.).
  • After Leon fires on Holden and Holden crashes through the wall, hitting the table, the shot stays on Holden as fan blades brush his hair and his back smokes from the gunfire.
  • Deckard's meal at "THE WHITE DRAGON" can be seen being laid on the bar in front of him, rather than merely being heard.
  • No narration during the scene where Deckard awaits a seat at "THE WHITE DRAGON", but the blimp's advertisement is un-altered in the background (unlike in the "Director's Cut", where it WAS altered to cover the narration over).
  • When Deckard and Gaff inspect Leon's address and the attendant opens his room for them, he says, "Kowalski", indicating the current tenant. Kowalski is Leon's "last name".
  • Roy does not ask Chew, "Now...where would we find this J. F. Sebastian?"; the scene merely cuts to Deckard driving home.
  • When Deckard plays the piano in a depressed stupor: a) there is no unicorn vision, b) there is no background music, and c) we hear the one or two notes Harrison Ford actually played on the set.
  • Deckard's search for Abduul Hasaan lasts longer: we see more of Animoid Row and the back streets of the sector.
  • After Zhora attacks Deckard and flees, we see Deckard loosen his tie from his throat...as if he was nearly beheaded!
  • "If I Didn't Care", by the Ink Spots, was originally heard in the background when Deckard purchases a bottle of Tsing Tao.
  • In Deckard's apartment, there originally was no "Love Theme" as we all know and love; the initial music track merely continues on longer. Also, Rachel plays a different selection on the piano when testing herself; it actually was the sheet music we see displayed!
  • When Roy kills Tyrell, the footage of Tyrell dying was more in tone with the International Version (yet still somewhat tamer) and Roy then turns to Sebastian saying, "I'm sorry, Sebastian. Come. COME", as he stalks J.F.
  • Bryant's info to Deckard over the CB about Tyrell's and Sebastian's deaths are heard as we see Deckard driving through the tunnel. When Deckard is parked in his sedan on the street, he is merely preparing to call J.F.'s apartment before the police spinner interrogates him.
  • We actually see Roy break Deckard's fingers, in close up, with a prop-hand.
  • More shots of Deckard as he hangs on to the neighboring building for dear life, after "jumping the gorge".
  • Different, farther-away shots of Roy as Deckard watches him die. Alternate narration was placed here (the only narration in this version), which consisted of this: "I watched him die all night. It was a long, slow thing and he fought it all the way. He never whimpered and he never quit. He took all the time he had as though he loved life very much. Every second of it...even the pain. Then, he was dead."
  • No shots of the "rolling TV monitors" in Deckard's apartment as he searches for Rachel. The shot merely continues, close up on Deckard, from the opening shot of the sequence, until he reaches down to pull the covers from over Rachel.
  • No end credits, merely exit music: the same cue heard as Gaff takes Deckard to see Bryant at the opening.
  
  
  
• Warner Bros. originally was preparing a technically updated version of the 70mm workprint to release as the "Director's Cut", but Ridley Scott and Michael Arick quickly prepared a revised theatrical version without narration, the tacky happy ending, and plus one unicorn vision. This edition was so quickly rushed into shape, that Ridley Scott still feels it falls short of his true director's cut.
  
  
• An extra sequence shown recently in England on a Channel 4 documentary shows Deckard talking to Holden in hospital. "Deckard it's tough now, these replicants aren't just a bunch of muscle minors any more, they're no goddamn different from you or me!". Holden talks about Leon and the circumstances around the VK interview in the Tyrell building. "its all over now, its a wipeout, they're almost US!". At the end of the documentary Ridley Scott finally confirms that Deckard is in fact a Replicant.
  
  
• In the Swedish version, the subtitles mistakenly identify "Batty" as "Beatty" and "c-beams" as "seabeams". The Swedish version also deletes the additional violence from the original version in the DC.
  
  
• In the San Diego sneak preview version of the film, exhibited only once in May 1982, there are three unique shots which are nowhere to be found in any other version, including the "Workprint". One shot is from the introduction of Roy Batty, displaying a full-body shot of him inside the VidPhon booth, another is of Deckard feebly attempting to reload his weapon after Batty has broken his fingers, and the last one is a high-angled shot of Deckard and Rachael's ride into the sunset.
  
  
• At the 2002 San Diego Comic-Con, Paul Sammon revealed an alternate opening that was scripted (and possibly filmed). Instead of the film opening up to a shot of the desolate city and then a shot of the eye, the alternate opening was on a large farm. In the middle of the farm, there was a large house. Suddenly, a Spinner (floating car) comes down from the sky and lands next to the house. Deckard emerges and enters the house. No one is home. Deckard goes to the kitchen, and sees a pot of pea soup is boiling in the kitchen. Deckard sits down at the kitchen table. He sits there motionless for the rest of the day (he arrived in the afternoon, the background of the farm changes from day to night) until someone comes to the house. A man walks in. Suddenly, Deckard shoots the man in the back. He then goes over to the lifeless man's mouth and opens it up. Deckard then proceeds to remove the man's entire lower JAW from his head. Deckard turns to the removed jaw over to the region south of the chin, and sees a marking that reads, "Property of the TYRELL corporation". The man he shot was a replicant. Deckard takes the jaw, heads back to the spinner, and then takes off back to the city.
  
  
• At the 2002 San Diego Comic-Con, Paul Sammon stated that were was an alternate take on the scene where Batty kills Tyrell. In both (the theatrical and director's) cuts, we see J. F. Sebastian flee in horror after Batty puts both of Tyrell's eyes out. But allegedly in the shooting script there was a line where right after Batty killed Tyrell, Sebastian stepped up to him and said "No, no, that was too easy. WHERE'S THE *REAL* TYRELL?", meaning that the Tyrell that Batty killed could have been a replicant, and that Sebastian could be a replicant too since he guessed that Tyrell could be one.
  
  
• Some television broadcasts have a narrator reading aloud the opening scrawl.
  
  
• In 1992 a new version, titled "Blade Runner: The Director's Cut" was given a limited run in theaters and was subsequently released on video worldwide.
  • This version completely deletes all Deckard voice-overs, adds a 12 second scene showing a unicorn while Deckard plays the piano, deletes all additional violence shown in the European version, has a digitally remixed soundtrack and eliminates the happy ending (the film ends with the elevator doors closing).
  • In the Director's Cut while Deckard waits for a seat at the noodlebar, the advertising slogan from the blimp is longer than in the original version (to fill the void from the missing voice over) and adds the phrase "This announcement is brought to you by the Shimata-Dominguez Corporation -- helping America into the New World."
  • (SPOILER) The inclusion of the unicorn vision actually reveals, together with the unicorn figurine left by Gaff, that Deckard himself is a replicant. The revelation is similar to Deckard explaining to Rachael that her most private memory was known by others, and therefore must have been designed and implanted by someone else.
  
  
  

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